More about Marcia
She's been through it all, can share her turbulent life and make us laugh and cry with her along the way. She's a likely successor to the late Erma Bombeck, a down-to-earth wit who can use the stuff of her own experiences to reach American women and become a fixture in their homes. Erma did just that, selling millions of books, writing 4,500 newspaper columns and Marcia Wallace has that same voice. She's another great dame with an eye and ear for our common experience. The early chapters of the book paint a colorful portrait of growing up in small town Iowa in the 1950's, being the fat and brainy offspring of two alcoholic parents. She suffered physical abuse from her father, mental abuse from her mother and even sexual abuse at the hands of a local Dairy Queen employee. Yet, and this is one of Marcia's greatest gifts, she manages to forgive them all and find the humanity in the less than commendable adults that peopled her childhood. She turns tragedy into comedy without a drop of sappiness … she's an optimist with an edge. Her story continues to New York where her drive and talent lead from improvisational theatre to the Merv Griffin Show to discovery by CBS legend Bill Paley who cast her (sans audition) in the role of ‘Carol’ on the Bob Newhart Show. With a succession of creepy boyfriends and a stint in a mental hospital, which Marcia refers to as ‘the bin’. After ‘the bin’ came crazy psychiatrists, loopy sex therapists and more creepy boyfriends.She recovered thanks to psychotherapy, friends, and her spiritual journey leads to redemption in her adopted religion, Buddhism. At the age of 43, Marcia finally meets the love of her life and to her astonishment, he loves her back. On the eve of her wedding, in yet another perverse twist in her life, she is diagnosed with breast cancer and goes on to be a “blushing Buddhist bride”. When she and her husband, Denny, fail to get pregnant, they go on the dramatic pilgrimage of love called adoption and end up in the delivery room coaching the birth mother. Finally: Marcia, happy at last. However, when their child is 5, Denny is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, suffers for 8 months and dies. The latter part of her tale deals with grieving, getting out of debt, menopause, single motherhood, widowhood and all at the same time! Marcia starts to put her new life together only to be sidetracked by a fire that destroys her home. There's also a walk on the underbelly of show biz – dinner theater (“opening night roses came out of my first paycheck”) and films including an opus called “Space Sluts in the Slammer”. But she hangs in there and at 50, a widow and a single mom in menopause, Marcia wins an Emmy for her tender and hilarious portrayal of Bart Simpson's 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Krabappel. More importantly, she becomes a national spokesperson for breast cancer awareness, going on the road to tell her story of survival and hope.
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Marcia was met with some formidable challenges at birth. She was born to an unloving mother, an abusive father and not pretty or popular
in the Midwest of the 50's. But she was gifted with talent, tenacity and a big heart. And, most importantly, an almost congenital inability to feel sorry for herself. She tells her story – a story with more than its fair share of sadness – with
acceptance and humor. She's learned a lot and learned it the hard way and her story has a meaning
for all women but ‘Girlfriends of a Certain Age’ will feel especially
inspired by Marcia's lack of self-pity and resilience.